Mind Swords
by Epsilon Zeta
Summary: The only two reviewers of "Before the Storm" both chose the Federation of Magic. Here it is, people. A Dreamscape story.


Author's Notes: Here I go with my follow up story after "Before the Storm"!! The only two people who reviewed both went for Daggen so without further adieu, enjoy the tale behind the Federation of Magic. At least my version of it. Enjoy!!  
  
Disclaimers: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, Rifts concepts belong to Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books. Name of story comes from Wizards of the Coast. Don't sue!!! I only own Ardronyx, Daggen and a handful of minor characters.   
  
Mind Swords  
  
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Sakura squeezed Li's arm until he couldn't feel the circulation there. "If Ayame is supposed to be a different version of me, how can she stand to go through a world populated with ghosts?!?" Li scratched his chin thoughtfully until he remembered a brief talk he had with his former boss, Crothus, back in his days as a Preserver. "All magical beings using dark magic always radiate a horror or an awe factor. With some people, that is relatively low. In your target's case, it's as high as they come. When Ayame gained an awe factor, her own personal horror factor lowered and practically wiped out any of her old fears."  
  
Li gave a gentle smile at the frightened girl. "We'll be leaving this place in a few seconds. The dimensional card is nearly charged up and ready to go!!" She gave a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't know how much more of this ghost world I can take!!" Several shadows popped out in front of the duo as well as a playful looking robotic phantom.  
  
Before Sakura could scream, Li took out the dimensional card and activated the whirlpool. He jumped in...with a tightly clinging Clow mistress on his left arm. The ride had been rocky as usual. (think Sliders. Now that was a rocky ride) The next thing they knew, they landed in a fountain filled with water. They heard a person scream in agony.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!! Someone got into the fountain of youth on my watch!!! Kaxon is so going to have my head on a platter for this!!!!" The two cardcaptors scrambled to get out of the fountain. Li's cheeks flushed when he saw how close Sakura's white clothes clinged to her body. Sakura had an adorable confused look on her face as she started to blush as well. 'What is he looking at...oh.' Her blush reddened as she finally noticed her wet clothing.  
  
Deep in the chamber, two pairs of eyes snapped open. "They're here. Right on time too. I guess with that guardian, my other self is actually punctual." Daggen, High Magus, shot Ayame a smirk. "Well we can finally give that new juicer a whirl, see how he works out. If he does work to his full potential, we can proceed with the operation."  
  
"Sakura, I'm so sorry. It wasn't right of me to..." A finger was placed to the blabbering boy's lips. He forced himself to remain quiet. "Let's put that behind us. Right now, we should find Ayame and Zachary...I hope she hasn't hurt him." Li clenched his fist. "Who knows what we may find when we catch up. We should prepare for the worst."  
  
Up on one of the buildings, a micro-film camera was taking pictures of the cardcaptor couple. "Targets identified and confirmed." He replaced the camera and took out a weapon. The AT-230 Particle Beam Rifle should do the trick.  
  
A small warning came to his head. He grabbed Sakura and leapt out of the way of a blast from an energy weapon. "What was that?!?" Li started to concentrate his senses but there were too many magical auras around him. "I'm not sure. We should go somewhere safe until we can figure out our next move."  
  
"Hmmmm...the aim could use a little work." Ayame shot a cold glare in Daggen's direction. Daggen regarded her coolly. "I guess it must be hard to aim correctly while totally possessing a person...especially a Ninja juicer who has been trying to win control over his own body."   
  
Ayame released her hold on the Ninja juicer. "I thought I could have lasted a little longer but apparently I underestimated his magic resistance. At least I was able to alter his memories." Her jade eyes twinkled in delight. "I'm sure he can finish off the job in a reasonable amount of time."  
  
"How did you know that blast was coming towards us?" Li took the drinks from the waitress and took a sip. "Sixth sense. A basic psionic component that all beings in the Dreamscape possess." Sakura looked at her cup and silently wondered if this really was honey milk.   
  
The scrapes of chairs could be heard all around before silence filled the room. A small, puzzled look came on Sakura's face. 'Why would everybody leave like that?' Li placed his glass down. "You can come out now." From the shadows, a figure appeared with a katana in his hand.   
  
Sakura nearly fell out of her chair. "What is it that you want from us?" The figure remained silent, waiting for the duo to make a move. "He's some sort of mercenary. From his weapons and his bio-comp system, he's a Ninja juicer. Crothus taught a course about the different types of juicers since we would run into these guys once in a while."  
  
"Juicers?" Li drew his weapon as well. "I'll explain once we get out of this particular mess." The Ninja juicer attacked. Li deflected the strike and countered with a punch to the head. The juicer dodged and flipped himself over to a chair. A few small spikes flew out of his hand. "Get down!!!!!" The spikes exploded where Sakura had previously been standing. The two were behind the bar.   
  
"Exploding shuriken. Great!!!" Li took out a Chinese slip. "Wait a minute. He's a Ninja juicer, right?" The boy shot a 'what are you getting at' look at Sakura. "I remember the weird parallel world where we lived in a place called Tomoeda, Japan. Everybody spoke to us in Japanese...we got the hang of it, thanks to a little help from the Tongues spell. And ninjitsu originated in Japan."   
  
Li shrugged. "Go for it." Sakura cleared her throat before speaking in Japanese. "Why are you trying to kill us?" The juicer paused. 'Nani? The girl can speak Japanese?' Footsteps were approaching the bar. The mission would have to wait. He escaped quietly out the back.   
  
"Well?" The girl silently waited before someone came in the bar. "Hey, is anybody in here?" Li couldn't sense the juicer so it was safe for now. He came up from behind the counter. "Yeah. We had a little trouble with a juicer."  
  
The stranger pushed up his glasses. "Ah, a juicer. Should have known that it would create this type of a mess." Li glared at the somewhat familiar figure. "Is that...?" Sakura squealed in delight. "Eriol-kun!!!" She wrapped him up in a bear hug but realized that this was not the Eriol she knew. "Hoe!! Gomen!!!!" 'Eriol' gave Li a strange look. "Do you know what she's saying?" "Hoeeeeee!!!!"  
  
Her face was as red as a tomato. "I can't believe I inherited some of my other self's characteristics." She started speaking in English again. "Well, we accidentally winded up having to live out their lives when the dimensional gateway fused our quantum matrices together. It's only natural we carry some of their characteristics," stated Li. "Hoe?" Li gave a small sweatdrop after remembering that she doesn't understand this stuff as well as he does.  
  
"Here you go." 'Eriol' handed Sakura a glass of honey milk. She took a small sip before grinning. "Thanks for the drink, Er-" She remembered that this was not Eriol. A small sweatdrop appeared on the side of her head. "Um...what's your name?" "Ardronyx." He blinked and looked at Sakura very carefully while she took a sip of her honey milk. "I've seen you around on the compound...you must be Ayame." Sakura nearly spat out the honey milk. Li shot up from his seat. "You know Ayame?! When did you meet her? Was she doing anything? Where did you see her last?"  
  
"Slow down, my eccentric friend! I've seen her around Daggen and that's pretty much all I know. So who would your friend be if she's not Ayame?" Sakura placed her glass on the small wooden table before introducing herself. Ardronyx gave a charming smile. "Delighted to meet you." He kissed her hand.   
  
Jealousy nearly overwhelmed the Chinese sorcerer standing nearby. 'I guess I must have inherited some of my counterpart's characteristics as well,' he thought as he struggled to control his anger. "Where did you see Daggen?" Ardronyx scratched his chin in thought. "I believe I saw them last near the Federation of Magic's compound."   
  
"What about the juicer? Do you have any idea about him?" The sorcerer blinked in surprise. "Now that you mention it, there's a juicer lab hidden somewhere in the compound, that was constructed by a small group of mages. I guess that's where they created that Ninja juicer." Ardronyx noticed the dazed and confused face of the Clow mistress. "You have no idea what juicers are?" She shook her head.   
  
"Juicers are chemically enhanced soldiers. Their strength, speed and espionage skills are maximized as well as knowledge of weaponry. Most of them are mercenaries. The chemicals used to enhance the juicers shortens their life to about six years after the process. The reversal process is difficult to perform, has a low success rate and must be performed by the end of the third year after the juicing process. Then it cannot be performed because the process would then be irreversible."   
  
Li paused. "They are also mentally weak which means a level three telepath can control him or her for quite some time. In some rare occasions, the juicer is able to resist the psionic assaults made by other mages." Ardronyx cleared his throat. "I believe that our next stop should be the Federation compound."  
  
"They're coming." The High Magus grinned. "Excellent. I can gain favour with the Federation Elders, destroy the uncertain factors in the operation and give the juicer another test run." Ayame sighed at the amount of gloating Daggen did.  
  
"So far, nothing. I suppose they sensed us earlier." Li gave a small frown. Ardronyx gave a grim look as well. "Ardronyx!!!" The trio looked at several cloaked men standing on the stairs of the compound. "So Daggen was right after all. You have been consulting with foreign sorcerers for your plan to create juicers under your command. You know very well that doing such a thing violates the balance of nature itself."   
  
"Well, I guess this is Daggen's plan," said Sakura weakly. The men channeled their energy to cast an Anti Magic Cloud spell. Ardronyx swore in the Faerie language before he started to concentrate on a Negate Magic spell. "We have to help him!!" "Unfortunately, the two of you will be busy yourselves." The Ninja juicer's Kusari-Gama (chain-like weapon, I think) nearly hit the duo. Li drew his weapon while Sakura summoned her star staff.   
  
Undaunted, the juicer replaced his weapon and grabbed a Vibro-Katana. "You should help Ardronyx. I'll hold off the juicer." Before she could protest, Li dashed toward the juicer. "Windy, blow away the Anti Magic Cloud!!!" The card blew the cloud towards the Elders, delaying their attack.  
  
The two blades clashed at each other furiously. 'Assassin type hand to hand combat. This is going to be tricky.' Li gave a small grunt before knocking the Vibro-Katana out of the juicer's grip. He recovered from the blow and drew out a Kusari-Fundo (trident). In his quarters, a scowl pasted itself on Daggen's handsome face as he observed the battle. "We overestimated the juicer's abilities. Nxla's not going to be happy with you."  
  
"On the contrary, Nxla will be quite pleased with the experimental hybrid juicer with both characteristics from a Hyperion and a Titan. All we need is a volunteer for the procedure." Ayame quickly cast a Mindshatter spell on Daggen, knocking him out. "You, my friend, just got drafted."  
  
The juicer finally got Li pinned down with the trident. "Omae o korosu." He drew his AT-130 Particle Beam Pistol. "Thunder!!!" The Thunder card hit the juicer full force, forcing him back. One of the Elders noticed the juicer. "Is that a juicer?" Another Elder paused to stare. "It is. You know what we must do with them."   
  
Sakura used the Tongues spell to speak in Japanese. "We don't want to fight you!! You're our friend!" The juicer pulled himself up with the trident. "Nani? How can we be friends? We're too different." The Clow mistress smiled. "It's the differences that make friendship more interesting. We celebrate differences, not shun them." Before the juicer could give a reply the ground began to shake underneath the compound. Ardronyx gave a loud warning. "It's the Firequake spell!!!! Get down!!"   
  
The spell began to focus itself on to the Ninja juicer. "His armor is near depletion. We should be able to finish him off." Li got up and focused his energy. "Powers of the elements, heed my call!! Channel lightning through this sword!!!" The blast temporarily disrupted the Elders' concentration. Suddenly, a huge explosion came from one of the windows. "Daggen..." Ardronyx quickly ran to the window. (Daggen's quarters were on ground floor)   
  
"Do you see it now? The secret entrance to the juicer laboratory was inside Daggen's quarters all along!!" The Elders could only stare in shock "It appears that we were mistaken. Daggen had been involved the entire time. Please accept our sincere apologies." Ardronyx looked at the Elders. "And should we not alter our policies on juicers? After all there are a large number who wish to be detoxified."  
  
"Perhaps, you're right. The Federation of Magic's purpose is to aid nature in any way possible. Even those that have been altered." The sorcerer looked behind the Elders and pointed a finger behind them. "Then I suggest you start with that Ninja juicer."   
  
"Zachary!!! Come on, pull yourself together!!" Sakura's eyes started to well up in tears. A gigantic shadow came over the duo and their fallen friend. "Since we had caused the damage, we would like to try to repair it." An Elder looked at the juicer and felt his pulse on his wrist. "Tell me. Is he from your world?" The two cardcaptors nodded.   
  
"Then your friend is in trouble. His body cannot take the chemicals from the juicer bio-comp system for very long. Because of this his lifespan had been shortened greatly. Unless he goes through the juicer detoxification process, he will die within 72 hours."  
  
  
Well, that's it. I finally got this story done!!! For all those who liked "Before the Storm", sorry for the long wait. Anyway, should Zachary live or die? First five reviews get to have their say!!! I'll write a sequel to this in the summer probably. Until next time...   



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